I have spent the last couple of days, three actually, creating training videos for a client.  In total I have created 11 tutorials, covering 8 skill sets necessary for their staff to master the basics of the software programme they have invested in.  The structure of each tutorial is the same.  In the first instance the skill is demonstrated with an audio track and on screen prompts.  Then the tutorial becomes interactive, it is a complete repeat of the first half  but the audio track, mouse animation and onscreen prompts disappear.  The user has to move stepwise through the video emulating what has just been shown to them.  All correct moves are confirmed and all incorrect moves are supported with prompts.

I departed the supertanker in August of 2009 and joined Team Solutions on 6 month contract.  That short but happy and productive contract has now ended and I am now out on my own as in independent facilitator.  Next year is already looking to be a full and productive year.  I will be working in many schools and also for some commercial clients too. I am spending the summer organising my computers and resources to meet the needs of the many different schools that I am scheduled to be working in.  I am blocked out for specific schools on specific days for all but a few days of the entire academic year.

I will be at Learning @ Schools 10 and have submitted a couple of proposals to the organisers and am waiting to hear if I have been successful again.  I am also intending to go to Ulearn10 in Christchurch, but that is much later in the year.

I am looking back at the last year and am very pleased with the journey that has brought me this far.  As the year closes, I am now eagerly anticipating the challenges of the coming weeks and months.

ToonDoo a cloud cartooning utility which I was singing the prasies of at Ulearn09 and have been using in classes here and in the UK for the last couple of years has just added a new service, specifically aimed at educational institutions who want to use the site but are concerned about privacy etc.  The new service is called ToonDooSpaces.  It is free to sign up and trial for 15 days, but after that and if you want to continue, there is a charge.  However as the books in and cartoon strips are embedable and always have been in ToonDoo then maybe your blog or Wiki will offer you the walled garden security that some are seeking.  For those of you that want ToonDoo and privacy, this new variant offers you a wider range of privacy but it will cost.

I have just added a new resource to the resources page, the new resource is called Aviary.  You can check what I had to say here.

My second presentation of Ulearn09 was scheduled for breakout 7.  In other words the graveyard shift, the penultimate session of the conference when people are at their most tired after three days of exposure to continual innovation, integration, exhibitors, networking and socialising.  Prior to the conference I could see that the session was fully booked with the maximum of 25 delegates, I was very pleased with that as the presentation had  been marketed in the following way:

90 minutes?  So many tools, so little time!

A tool a minute? David will try to illustrate 90 different tools in 90 minutes. With so much on the web being free and a perpetual beta world of trying the coolest thing, it is easy to forget just what is still there or how to effectively use what is already out there in a classroom. In this session David will run through as many free programs, tools and web based utilities as he can in 90 minutes. He will name, document, share the links to and illustrate how he has used the tools in a class situation (or how they could be if he has not). Even if you know of 89 of the tools already, the 90th tool could just be what you are looking for! Come along for a high energy dash through as set of tools that will make a big impact on all areas of your ICT integration strategy, except your budget!

What I was offering was a list, with only a minute per  tool this session was going to be far from hands on!  Yet it was booked out.  I have to say I expected that not many delegates would come to a session so late in proceedings, with planes to catch, conference fatigue and no time to play during the session being the causal factors.  Prior to the start of the session and as people were drifting in, I spoke with several of the delegates and they were all really excited at the prospect of this session.  Apparently it had been fully booked within minutes of the bookings section of the Ulearn website opening.  It was evident that the session had touched a nerve as people  came in their droves despite their fatigue.  I stopped counting at 50 attendees and several came in just after I launched into my presentation.   I hope that all that attended did indeed walk away with at least one tool that they had forgotten, or was new to them and are inspired to integrate that tool into their classroom from Monday onwards.  Certainly from the feedback forms that were completed (20) all rated the session and the content very highly and all gave very positive comments, clearly there is a need for this kind of session to be repeated and to more than 50 teachers.

Of course what needs to happen now is for each of these tools to be unpacked in detail in the form of hands on tutorials, practical workshops and integration sessions, a service I am happy to deliver, please call if you would like to discuss this further.

I have just got back from another exciting annual marathon that is Ulearn.  I had hoped to present three full sessions this year, but was only picked for two, better luck next year.  The conference was its usual mix of inspiration, affirmation and networking.  This year a good deal of my energy went into the networking aspect.  I have made some promising new contacts that are opening up exciting new leads, all of whom need to be followed up in the coming days and weeks.  Below is the presentation slide show that I gave in breakout 1

I am off to Ulearn09 next week. I have two presentations to share with the community.  My Friday session at 11:30 NZDST will be broadcast via my Livestream channel.  The subject of this session is ‘90 tools in 90 minutes.’  I will be showing my attendees 90 really useful tools that they can use in their classroom to integrate e-learning.  It is highly likely that they will know some, if not the majority of the tools, but I guarantee that there will be one that is new to them all.

So please check in at 11:30 NZDST to see if indeed you know of and have used in a class the 90 tools that I will be sharing in 90 minutes with my physical audience.

A project that I have been working on throughout the early part of this year for Interface Magazine has just gone live.

I have spent several months of  this year researching and writing reviews for all of the videos on this site. The aim of the project is to provide teachers with an easily accessible and searchable resource for software tutorials. Providing teachers with a series of tutorials that are easily digestible and sequential  based around a software programme is something about which I am passionate and for the last couple of years I have been creating videos tutorials to do just that. The Lookah site is a natural extension of this passion. One of my tutorials helped someone in the US successfully get a job, so clearly there is a need for the service and there is evidence that video tutorials work.

The tutorials that are currently on the Lookah site are based on a survey that Interface magazine asked of its readers, plus a few of my own favourite software programmes of course, plus a few that I created.  The result is what you see here and it is not an exhaustive list.  It is up to you to make this resource work.  If you need a specific tutorial on a specific software platform, I can create this for you, so please let me know. The Lookah project is phase one of a two phase project. Check the site out and let me know what you think.

The project and the concept is something that I am very proud of.  It is a service that I think teachers will find invaluable and the aim is to continue to add to it. Take some time to check out Lookah and let me know what you think.

It has been a good weekend. The copy for the new site has been re-written several times and now that I am happy with it, for the moment, the new look site has gone live. I have just quickly run through the links and all seems to be working.

Now that the web site has been re-vamped I can now go back to concentrating on the work that my clients need me to do. Should be an interesting week ahead with leads to turn from prospects to clients.

Continuing the Open Source software theme.  I have been attending a course on 3D animation for the last 10 weeks, it came to an end this week.  I attended primarily to bring my Blender skills up a notch or two.  I am self taught and am well aware that while this method can work well it is also a recipie for engendering bad habits!

The course was at the Freelance Animation School here in Auckland and their program of choice is Max 3DS.  As is usual at the end of these things we had to complete an evaluation.  I thanked Mark our tutor for teaching me more about Blender in the previous weeks that I had learnt in a long time.  He was confused as we had not even looked at Blender!  It got me thinking and we discussed how using Open Source 3D animation would be a good choice for adult evening classes.  At this point his boss walked in and we had a discussion about why Open Source software should be offered as a short course option.  I believe that offering short courses in Inkscape and Blender for example to secondary school teachers would be able to provide foundation courses in these programmes in school which would teach the pupils the basic principles of the programmes that in courses such as the ones offered at Freelance, students would arrive with a better grounding and with a skill set that could be easily transferred to the commercial variants that the work with at Freelance.

Mark’s boss seemed very impressed by this notion.  We are currently investigating how I could put together a programme of lessons for their tutors, alumni and existing students in such open source programmes as Blender, Inkscape, The Gimp etc and have me deliver them.  I have already drafted out a series of lessons and skills, I will be meeting the school again in a week or so to continue the planning.